The Mayor of London has launched a new programme, “Our Time: Supporting Future Leaders” to get females into senior positions and help reduce the gender pay gap, starting in the public sector.
The aim of the city-wide leadership scheme is for successful senior staff to lend their experience, professional networks and contacts to high-potential females so they can progress within an organisation.
“It is shameful that in 2018 women remain underrepresented at all levels of government and leadership roles,” he stated.
The Greater London Authority (GLA) will be one of the first and largest public bodies to introduce the scheme into their business. Other public sector organisations following in GLA’s footsteps are Transport for London, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and the London Legacy and Old Oak and Park Royal development corporations.
Khan hopes the scheme will provide a more structured approach towards career progression. Other traditional female development schemes haven’t identified the imbalance of power and Khan believes this new scheme does. If successful, Khan expects the GLA group to be seen as a model employer as it would show other organisations how to promote equality within a business.
The scheme is set to start at the beginning of June or July and the female employeess will be paired with a senior member of staff for a minimum of 6 months. Both the female employeess and senior staff will be provided with training and a network they can access for support throughout the duration of the scheme.
Sadiq Khan admitted “I want to encourage all industries across the capital to commit to addressing the shocking imbalance we still see in positions of power today through adopting this scheme”.
Once more and more organisations introduce this programme into their business, it will be the employers’ responsibility to ensure females do progress into senior positions.
UK country manager at WWP, Karen Blackett, stated “We need to have a fresh approach. There are so many organisations that have looked at initiatives, but we need something that’s tangible and sustainable – one that is proactive, and one that involves intervention”.
The gender pay gap figures have revealed that eight in ten organisations pay their male staff more than females. More than 10,000 employers published their gender pay gap report and the figures showed women are paid on average a median hourly rate of 9.7% less than men. A shocking statistic from the gender pay gap report is that only 8% of employers had no pay gap between the genders.
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